An emergency government meeting chaired by Prime Minister Costas
Simitis on Thursday night, attended by senior ministers and the
leadership of the army and fire brigade, decided on a series of drastic
measures for dealing with the spate of forest fires all around the
country.

After the meeting, which lasted an hour and 15 minutes, Interior
Minister Vasso Papandreou said these measures included:

Putting the armed forces on full alert to free up fire-fighting forces,
asking for help from abroad, hiring more fire-fighting aircraft and the
emergency hiring of seasonal staff with previous experience in fighting
forest fires.

After an earlier meeting this afternoon, again chaired by Simitis, the
prime minister had described the situation in Greece as "particularly
dangerous, exceptionally dangerous."

Interior Minister Papandreou noted that the next few days would be
difficult because of the extreme weather conditions. Fire-fighting
forces needed reinforcing, she added, since "their constant, superhuman
efforts had pushed them beyond their limits and they are now in danger
of collapsing from exhaustion".

The minister said that recruitment of 1500 extra fire-fighters would
begin on Friday, and that they would be chosen from the lists of the
Supreme Council for Staff Selection (ASEP).

A delegation from the American television network NBC, which has bought
the television rights to the Olympic Games for North America, was in
Athens on Thursday to visit the sites where the Games would be held.

Led by the network's president Randy Falco, the delegation will hand
over $850 million, or 280 billion drachmas, to the "Athens 2004"
Organising Committee via the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The NBC executives were welcomed by Organising Committee chairwoman
Yianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, who said she hopes for a close and
fruitful cooperation over the next four years for the best promotion of
the Games, while she also wished NBC the best of luck in Sydney.

After being shown around the Panathenian Stadium and the Olympic
Athletic Centre of Athens (OAKA) facilities, the NBC president said
only that he was absolutely satisfied with the overall picture he
formed after his meeting with the members of the Organising Committee.

More than 200 companies are seeking listing on the Athens Stock
Exchange, a report by the Union of Institutional Investors said on
Thursday.

The report said that a percentage of 70-80 percent of them were seeking
listing on the parallel market for smaller capitalisation stocks while
only the remaining 20 percent were seeking listing on the main market.

Spyros Kouniakis, the Athens Stock Exchange's chairman, recently said
that only 50 new companies will be listed on the market by the end of
the year.

Equity prices ended Thursday's session narrowly mixed with the Greek
market easily absorbing a wave of early share offer which pushed the
general index as low as 3,878.61 points, to finally end above the 3,900
support level.

Traders said the recovery of the market was a result of selective
buying in bank shares while smaller capitalisation stocks continued
losing ground.

The general index ended at 3,926.73 points, up 0.16 percent with
turnover a low 69 billion drachmas.

BRUSSELS (ANA-B.Demiris) - Greece is ready for introduction of the euro
as a day-to-day currency on January 1, 2002 along with the euro zone's
other members, EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes said on
Wednesday.

Solbes was replying to a reporter's question at a news conference held
in the Belgium capital on the EU's readiness for introduction of the
single currency, which has not so far circulated although it is traded
and used in paper transactions.

"Preparations begun in Greece on transfer to the euro are adequate and
I am absolutely certain that on January 1, 2002 Greece will be suitably
prepared," Solbes said.

He added that the government had briefed the EU's executive Commission
and European Central Bank of the extent of its preparations before a
summit of EU leaders in June approved the country's entry into the
euro-zone on January 1, 2001, ahead of the euro's circulation.

Greece's belated entry as the twelfth member of the euro zone had not
led to problems of readiness. Conversely, the country was at an
advantage for the euro's introduction as it would avoid certain
practical difficulties faced by the zone's older members, Solbes
added.

Dimitris Chalikias, a former Bank of Greece's governor, warned on
Wednesday that unless measures were taken to restore confidence among
small investors on the Athens Stock Exchange, the country's capital
markets faced the danger of a capital flight to foreign markets.

Presenting his new book on "Greece in EMU - Challenges and necessary
adjustments", Chalikias said that a gradual fall of the general index
in the last few months could risk not only the inflow of foreign
capital in the market but also the outflow of domestic capital to
foreign markets.

"Greek banks don't even suspect the changes on the banking system
following our participation in EMU," Chalikias said.

The former central banker said that economic benefits from the
country's entry in the eurozone would not be automatic. "They will
depend on the country's ability to exploit all advantages and minimise
costs related to the fact that EMU participation means loss of basic
policy tools," he said.

The government on Wednesday announced that binding offers for a partial
privatisation of the state-run defence aviation industry (EAB) would be
submitted in early September.

Following a high-level government meeting in Athens, National Economy
Minister Yiannos Papantoniou told reporters that a strategic investor
with the ability to transfer know-how and hi-tech technology is sought
for the Hellenic Aerospace Industry.

In a related development, Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos
afterwards commented on the resurgent interest by a French consortium
headed by aviation giant Dassault to sell the Hellenic Air Force with
its ?Rafale" warplane despite a decision in January by Greece choosing
the ?Eurofighter?, built by a four-nation European consortium.

"At the moment negotiations with the Eurofighters representatives are
underway ... so that by next fall the contract is concluded... the
Eurofighter affair is closed," the defence minister said.

A total of 129 people have drowned in Greek beaches since the beginning
of the year, most of them over the age of 50, merchant marine minister
Christos Papoutsis said Monday.

Releasing harbour corps statistics, Papoutsis said of the 129 people
who had drowned in Greece since the beginning of the year, 27 percent,
or 33 people, were under the age of 50, while the overwhelming majority
of 73 percent, or 89 people, were aged over 50.

Merchant Marine Minister Christos Papoutsis will meet with the chairman
of the Union of Greek Shipowners, Yiannis Lyras, and representatives of
seamen union on Thursday to discuss ways to strengthen the country's
shipping sector.

"I will make it clear that competitiveness is not only the composition
of a ship's crew. We have to offer solutions and move fast. Greek
shipping needs solutions both in the international shipping and the
domestic coastal shipping sectors to remain strong. We need to give
equal opportunities to all. The dialogue will not last more than two
months and it will be transparent and essential. The Greek flag will be
more competitive and strong," Papoutsis said on Wednesday.

He announced that a Committee of Personalities, chaired by Vassilis
Sarantitis, would meet for the first time on Friday.

"I expect the Committee to submit its proposals on the domestic coastal
shipping sector in the next three months," Papoutsis said.

A huge forest fire on the holiday island of Samos has been contained,
while only "one small front" on Mt. Karvouni continued to blaze, Fire
Brigade chief Panayotis Fourlas said Wednesday. The fire chief said
back-up firefighters and army units were continuing to arrive on Samos
to help patrol the fire-devastated areas so as to be in a position to
immediately extinguish new flare-ups due to the weather conditions.

Patrols were also to continue of all the extinguished fires throughout
the country to prevent rekindling caused by rising temperatures and
high winds that have been forecast for the next few days, according to
a Ministerial Coordinating Committee on the fires.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Dutch Embassy in Athens denied that a
"travel directive" had been issued by the Dutch government for
tourists, calling on them to hasten their departure from Samos.